They just won’t give up. When Bush-bashers have no substantive criticisms to make, they resort to Michael Moore’s “My Pet Goat” strategy.

“My Pet Goat,” you’ll recall, was the book the president read to Florida schoolchildren for several minutes after he was informed of the terrorist attacks on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. (Correction: Children read the book while the president listened.) Moore indicted Bush’s decision in the crockumentary “Fahrenheit 9/11.” You’ll also recall that John Kerry pathetically picked up Moore’s goat droppings and slung them around during his failed campaign–despite Kerry’s own admission on CNN’s Larry King Live that after the attacks, he, along with Sen. Tom Daschle, couldn’t think straight.

It’s not just Hollywood and Democrat officials who engage in Pet Goat-ing. The MSM love to obsess on completely trivial matters in an attempt to discredit the president’s commitment to fighting terrorism or whatever else is on the international agenda. Power Line, for example, noted Pet Goat Redux in the carping about President Bush’s response to the tsunami disaster earlier this year.

Well, now there’s Dana Milbank at the Washington Post with the new “My Pet Goat.” Just take a look at the headline on his snark-infested piece on how the White House handled yesterday’s air scare:

The President

On a Bicycle in Beltsville, Blissfully Unaware

Milbank has a bee in his bonnet over the president’s exercise regimen. These people can’t make up their minds. First, Bush is too lazy and slothful. Now, he works out too much. He overreacts to terror threats. He underreacts to terror threats.

Question: How does Milbank know whether Bush was “blissful?” Did he ask him? Is he a mind-reader? Why isn’t this hit-piece on the op-ed page or at least disingenuously labeled “analysis?”

Will Howard Kurtz or Michael Getler comment?

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More goat-spotting at…
Sundries Shack

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Related:

The Washington Post’s headline hype